8,137
edits
Changes
From Fellrnr.com, Running tips
no edit summary
* The price starts at $700 and goes up to nearly $1,000. That seems rather high for an outstanding and groundbreaking watch, and even if the Suunto worked perfectly and had more features, there's nothing that is likely to break new ground other than the price. Even there you could argue the Apple Watch has gone to even greater extremes of conspicuous consumption.
Normally I give a link to each product I review on Amazon, and I get a commission from the sales. I buy all the gear I test using the same outlets as any other runner, which allows me to write critical reviews free from the concern that the manufacturer won't give me freebies in the future. I don't review the products for the financial benefits, but it does provide the money to buy new gear to test. (I do buy gear to test that isn't available on Amazon, like [[RunScribe]]. There's no benefit to me, but it fits in with my goal of supporting the running community.) However, I can't in good conscience give a link for you to buy the Spartan Ultra. If you really want the Spartan, I'd recommend holding off for a while to see if they can improve things. If you've already got a Spartan, I can recommend a [[MilestonePod]] so that you'll have a better idea of how far you've run.
=The Spartan Ultra in Context=
To understand my angst with the Suunto Spartan, let me compare it to another device, the [[TgForce]]. Neither device is ready for prime time as they both have missing features and significant bugs. However, the problems I'm seeing with the TgForce are exactly what you'd expect from a small startup, while the Spartan comes from a major company. But more importantly, the TgForce sensor is a new and novel device that has the potential to improve a runner's form and reduce injury rates. This means that even though TgForce is not really ready for prime time, it's still an exciting device to use. On the other hand, even if Suunto can fix the problems with that the Spartan, all you'll have is a rather overpriced watch that doesn't do anything that existing devices don't already do, often better.
=GPS Accuracy=
The Spartan has the worst [[GPS Accuracy]] of any watch I've tested, but to back up the numbers and to visualize things in a more qualitative way I've included the images below of the GPS tracks from one part of the testing course. I've added the tracks from the [[Suunto Ambit3]] which is one of the most accurate watches I've tested for comparison. The inaccuracy should be immediately obvious, with the tracks widely spaced rather than tightly following the path shown in black. The blue lap markers are widely scattered, suggesting the Spartan is not simply applying an excessive level of smoothing to compensate for accuracy problems, but is actually unable to get a position that's close to reality. Most watches have a problem where the path curves in the middle section, and the Spartan does especially badly here. The Spartan does badly in the sharp turn on the right side of the picture, an area where most watches do surprisingly well. The section under the bridge doesn't show any obvious signs that the Spartan is failing to reacquire the GPS signal, though you'll notice some lap markers on the wrong side of the bridge. There are a few tracks that have the right shape, but are offset some distance from the path. This is most obvious in the sharp turn on the right, but you can see it in other places. There were similar issues with offset tracks in the [[Garmin Fenix 2]] which were mostly remediated with a firmware upgrade. However, the improvements in overall accuracy were not as dramatic as you might have expected. (I will continue to test as firmware updates become available.)
{| class="wikitable"
|- valign="top"
|[[File:BridgeSuunto Spartan Ultra.jpg| None | Thumb | x300px |This diagram has tracks color coded with green indicating good accuracy through to red indicating poor accuracy, and the lap markers as blue dots.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:BridgeSuunto Ambit3 R.jpg| None | Thumb | x300px |Here's how the [[Suunto Ambit3]]'s accuracy looks.]]
|- valign="top"
|}
=Comparison Table=
{{:Best Running Watch-table}}
